Terms Of Release
by Myrddin Emrys The Third
Summary: Sasuke is back in Konoha and facing execution until the elders decide to seal his chakra and order him to repopulate the Uchiha clan for the village. When they choose Sakura for this, sparks will fly between the former teammates. M for lemons. On hiatus with possible deletion.


**A new story! When I finished Remnants in the Dust, for some reason I really wanted to put up another SasuSaku, so I searched through my documents with SasuSaku ideas in them, (almost thirty ideas floating around there) and picked the one that had the most done on it, then rewrote a bunch of it. And this is the end result!**

**Please enjoy and remember that I do not own anything Naruto. Except my DVD's, some magnets and a few pictures and magazines…**

_**Terms Of Release**_

**Chapter One – Bound**

The prison for the most dangerous criminals known to Konoha was dank and uninviting. The two people currently walking through the poorly lit corridors of the section reserved for the worst of them didn't seem to notice this, though. They were far more intent on their destination as the click, clack of their heels echoed through the prison.

The elder one of them, a rather busty woman who held herself proudly, was in no real rush to get through the dark corridors. She moved at a steady pace. Her companion, whose cherry coloured locks seemed out of place on anyone, really, followed nervously, glancing at the doors that led to the prisoner cells. Unlike her companion, she looked like she wanted nothing more than to get out of there.

The two of them eventually reached a room with an Anbu guard in front of it, and the shinobi simply nodded at them before opening the door for them. It creaked rather noisily as the room came into view, its sole occupant visible once it was done. The figure was familiar to both women, though one of them seemed reluctant to look at him. The other strode purposefully into the room while her companion lingered at the door.

The shackles that bound the prisoner made a clatter as he shifted his position, and he stared at the woman before him. "So they decided, then?"

The busty blonde glared at him for his irreverent tone and snapped, "You're lucky, Uchiha, that the elders agree that having the Sharingan in the village once more is more important than giving you the punishment you deserve."

"Does your tone mean that you disagree with them then, Tsunade?" Sasuke asked in a bored voice.

"That's Tsunade-sama or Hokage-sama to you, you ungrateful little fuck," the fifth Hokage ground out.

"I'm not ungrateful," Sasuke said, his words not really sounding genuine.

"Then maybe you should act like it!" Tsunade snapped. "Now, you know that one of the terms of your release is that your chakra be sealed. It's your heirs that will continue the sharingan. Sakura!"

The pink haired woman then stepped forward into the cell, and she still seemed reluctant. Sasuke pretended not to notice her, but covertly eyed her. He was wondering why she looked so nervous, was it because of the fact the two of them were here to seal his chakra? Or did she still harbour that ridiculous crush? Perhaps she agreed with the Hokage, and thought he should have been executed instead of conditionally pardoned? In any case, her body language indicated that she definitely didn't want to be doing this.

"Let's get this over with," Tsunade said. "Ready, Sakura?"

"Ready, shishou," the pinkette in question said, and the two of them moved forward.

As soon as they were close enough, they began performing seals, and Sasuke recognised the configuration of those cursed hand signs. He could feel it as their chakra flared, then both of them reached forward to his bare and filthy stomach and instantly he could feel the result of the seals go into effect. Their chakra burned into him much more painfully than he'd anticipated, and Sasuke had to bite his lip to keep from vocalising that pain. Once it was done, Sasuke couldn't feel any trace of his chakra. He felt weak, and he hated it.

"One last thing to do, and then you're released, Uchiha," the Hokage said, then turned to the nervous woman. "Sakura, seal off the pathways to his Sharingan."

"What?" Sasuke wheezed out, still recovering from the pain. "Isn't sealing my chakra enough?"

"No," Sakura spoke up, her voice quiet. "I have to sever the chakra connections in your eyes, or you won't get out of here."

"What's the point?" he demanded. "Without my chakra, I can't use my sharingan anyway!"

"Shut up and accept that the elders are a bunch of paranoid twits!" Tsunade snapped. "Sakura, do it."

Sakura moved forward once more, standing next to him and reaching her hand behind his head. The way she stood was reminiscent of an embrace, but neither of them noticed that as she raised her other hand to cover his eyes.

"I'm sorry," she whispered as she sent her chakra in and severed him for life from the very thing that had made him an Uchiha.

"Save your pity for someone who wants it!" Sasuke whispered harshly, his words intended to hurt, and they hit their goal.

The next thing he knew Sakura was pulling away and she said, "It's done."

"We're leaving now, Uchiha," Tsunade said. "Some Anbu will be here soon to escort you to your assigned quarters. You will be given an allowance until you can find yourself some work, but don't expect to mooch off the village forever. If you slack off, you're cut off. Understood?"

Sasuke nodded, and she continued, "The elders are going to be choosing a wife for you… Don't give me that look! They're choosing someone that will be genetically and sexually compatible with you, and she's the one that will have your children. That's your final condition for getting out of this hell hole. Remember to be grateful that you're not currently six feet under. Sakura! We're leaving."

They left then, and an hour or so later, two Anbu came in, undoing his shackles and yanking him off the floor and out the door to _freedom_. But as far as Sasuke was concerned, without his chakra he was still a prisoner of Konoha…

OoOoO

Sakura sighed as Naruto went on about his latest mission. She really wanted nothing more than to go home and sleep, but she'd promised Naruto she'd meet him for ramen, so she forcibly kept her eyes open and tried to pay attention to her friend and team mate. But she was just so tired, first from her shift at the hospital, then sealing Sasuke, and returning to the hospital for another four hours.

"Hey, Sakura?" Naruto asked suddenly, possibly abandoning talking about his mission, but she had no idea because she hadn't really been listening. (For shame!) "Where is the teme living now? Can I go see him?"

"Oh! Um… He was assigned an apartment in the building next to the public library," she told him, trying to stifle a yawn. "And yes, I suppose it would be ok for you to go see him if he's there already. I think it's apartment 2B he was given."

Naruto grinned. "Thanks, Sakura-chan!" he said, leaning over to give her a quick kiss on the cheek before standing. "I'll go see him now, but you should go home and sleep, you look exhausted."

Surprised that he'd actually noticed and glad that he was considering her, Sakura gave him a hug and then left, determined to let nothing come between her and her bed. She took the quickest way home, over the rooftops, eager to get to the soft, warm sheets of her bed. Once she made it home, she decided to have a shower first, just because it had been awhile since her last one and she wanted to go to sleep feeling refreshed.

As she showered, she thought over everything that had happened at the prison. While she hadn't really had a problem with sealing Sasuke's chakra, Sakura had felt that severing his optical chakra connections was going a little too far. Doing so was absolutely irreversible, unlike the chakra sealing, and even though she knew he'd never be welcomed if he was any kind of threat, it had still been difficult.

But she had received the orders directly from Tsunade _and_ the elders, there had been nothing she could do. Sakura knew her shishou had wanted Sasuke executed, and that put a bit of a strain on her respect for the woman, but she supposed that she couldn't blame her. After all, Sasuke had been a missing nin, he'd _abandoned _Konoha and his team mates, he was _supposed_ to have been executed by all rights, according to the law.

But the elders had gotten the Daimyo's backing on this when they'd said they could return a powerful kekkei genkai to the service of the land of Fire. So, Tsunade had been overruled.

Her shower was over now and Sakura got out and dried herself before pulling on an old shirt of Kakashi's she'd borrowed off him a long time ago, and just never returned. She actually had several of his and Naruto's shirts as well as one of Yamato-san's and a couple of Shikamaru's even. In any case, it was long enough to wear by itself, though with a pair of panties as well. Yawning once more, she headed straight for the bedroom and was out like a light as soon as her head hit the pillow.

It seemed like only a few minutes had passed when incessant pounding woke her up, and groggily Sakura acknowledged there was someone at her front door. Groaning, she got out of bed, grumbling all the way to her front door, then flung it open. She groaned again when she found herself face to face with an annoying pig.

"Finally!" Ino huffed, pushing her way into the house. "I thought you'd never answer!"

"What do you want, pig?" Sakura asked. "I'm too tired to deal with you."

Ino glared at her and sat on Sakura's couch while the pinkette sat on her father's old armchair. "I heard that the first part of Sasuke's terms for release were fulfilled," she said. "And now it seems that the elders are already pushing for the second."

"Really?" Sakura asked. "I thought they were going to wait a few weeks at least for Sasuke to get settled. Have they picked someone already?"

Sakura wasn't really a fan of the elders plan to pick a bride for Sasuke. Whoever they picked was going to have to get pregnant as soon as possible. She didn't envy the woman that would end up marrying Sasuke, especially if she was a kunoichi. The poor woman was probably going to have to give up her career to have baby after baby. Sakura knew for certain that she would hate that. Even though she intended to one day have a family, there was no way she would give up being a kunoichi for it, and she really didn't want more than two or three kids, anyway.

"No," Ino said. "But I know they're looking through kunoichi records right now. Apparently a civilian isn't a good choice for them, because they want someone with ninja experience. They're immediately rejecting anyone from the clans with kekkei genkai, though."

"Oh really?" Sakura asked, yawning slightly. "Why is that?"

"Because they're worried it might interfere with the sharingan," Ino told her, then gave her a funny look. "Geeze, forehead, are you tired or something?"

Sakura glared at her best friend. "Oh, of course not, Ino," she snapped, "why would you think that? I just finished twelve hours at the hospital, not to mention that _I_ had to seal Sasuke's chakra _and_ his eyes! And then I had to meet Naruto for ramen! Of _course _I'm tired, pig!"

"Geeze! No need to be snappy!" Ino groused, standing up. "I get it, you want to go to sleep. But there's something you need to consider."

"Oh? And what's that?"

"That _you_ fit the bill for everything the elders want for Sasuke," Ino said.

"So do you," Sakura shot back.

Sighing, Ino agreed, "I know. You, me and Tenten are all on the list, I know that. Dad's seeing if he can get in to their meeting and get me out of it. I wish he could do the same for you and Tenten."

"They won't pick Tenten," Sakura said confidently for her friend. "She's already engaged."

"I doubt that would matter to them," Ino said, "but I suppose it wouldn't be a good move in the eyes of the people if they broke two people up. And you _know_ that those old bats want to look good, especially after that disaster with the traitor, Danzou."

Sakura yawned again and Ino giggled. "I'll leave you to catch up on your beauty sleep!" she said and headed for the door. "See ya tomorrow, forehead!"

Then she was gone, and Sakura gratefully headed back to her bed.

OoOoO

Sasuke was glaring at the ceiling, not really wanting to sleep. Naruto had come around before and had wanted to 'catch up', so he'd had to endure the baka's presence until he'd finally gotten the hint that Sasuke had wanted to be alone. He prized his solitude, after all, and wasn't looking forward to when he had to live with some woman, much less have to share a bed with this unknown person. The idea of the elders _assigning _some flaky woman, or worse, some ugly slob…

He sighed and rolled over, glaring at the wall instead now. He thought over everything that had happened today, and decided that when he saw Sakura again, he wanted to know _why_ she'd said sorry. Did she pity him? He glowered at the thought. There was no way he wanted _anyone's _pity! Angry, he closed his eyes and tried to sleep, but his thoughts were far too chaotic.

Whoever the elders chose had better be mildly attractive, he decided, otherwise he might have 'trouble' performing the necessary deed to get those idiots what they wanted. If only they'd been killed when that old bastard Danzou had died, at _Sasuke's _hands, though not a lot of people knew that. Naruto had told him that the _official_ cause of Danzou's death was suicide. The only ones who knew the truth were himself, his old team mates, his replacements and the Hokage.

Throwing all those thoughts out of his mind, Sasuke tried to relax, and eventually, at about half past four in the morning, he fell into a fitful doze.

OoOoO

Homura, Koharu and Tsunade all sat in the main council chambers. The first two looked smug, and the latter looked absolutely furious. "You're kidding me?" the Hokage demanded.

"We're not," Koharu said. "We've been through all the files, and she's the best. Her chakra control would be an excellent addition, and the fact that she has no kekkei genkai to interfere with the sharingan…"

"I will not sell off Sakura like she's some prized cow!" Tsunade argued. "She has a lot to offer this village with her medic skills! We cannot afford to 'retire' her!"

"We won't," Homura said, earning a bug-eyed look from Tsunade. "I know that we'd decided that whoever was going to marry him would have to give up her career, but we _do _understand Sakura's value to the village. She will be taken off the active roster list, but still left on the hospital rotation."

Tsunade glared at him for taking her main excuse away from her. "She won't agree," she said.

"She has no choice," Koharu spoke up. "She is a kunoichi of this village, she is required to obey the orders of her superiors. The only way out for her is defection, and we know she is too loyal to the village to do that."

"Fine!" Tsunade huffed. "But I'm not telling her. You can!"

"That is acceptable," Homura said, standing up with Koharu following suit. "Send the girl to us as soon as she reports for duty, we will inform her then."

The two of them left, leaving Tsunade fuming in her seat.

**I was going to have a Hyuuga seal him, since they're so **_**good**_** with seals, but that train of thought led me to SasuHina, and I wanted SasuSaku for this.**

**Sasuke was a bit shallow there, wasn't he? Anyway, I hope you liked it. Don't forget to review, that's one of the most important things right now!**


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